Ah, the mysterious Facebook algorithm. Comment on an article your friend shared about how a Trump presidency could result in nuclear disaster, and you’ll see five more posts about how Trump will systematically destroy our country (and a few about nuclear weapons in North Korea for good measure). Click on an article about how a woman’s body was found in a city dumpster, and you’ll see ten more murder articles. Suddenly, your feed is filled with alarming headlines and shocking photos. Pretty soon, it seems like the World. Is Ending. NOW. One morning, you actually think twice about leaving your house because you’re sure something horrible is going to happen, with you at the center of it all.
At least, that’s what happened to my Facebook feed and me.
On Facebook, I follow my favorite news outlets. I was using it to get my morning news. But somewhere along the way, I started clicking on more murder/terrorist/weapons posts instead of style/humanitarian/cat pics posts. It didn’t matter that The L.A. or New York Times posted Op-Eds or shared Style Section stories. The Facebook algorithm made sure those didn’t show up in my feed. The only ones that came up for me were about impending or actual disaster.
It started to make me crazy.
Every time I opened up ye olde Facebook App, I was getting small doses of doom: first thing in the morning after I woke up, riding in the elevator on the way to an audition, waiting in the lobby for a recording session, idly waiting for Steve to get home. It went something like this:
Picture of friend’s kid looking cute, DOOM SCARY MURDER STORY, friend’s lunch, friend’s tropical vacation, DOOM SCARY POLITICS STORY, update from favorite brand, ad for something dumb, DOOM SCARY MISSING PERSON STORY, DON’T LEAVE YOUR HOUSE BECAUSE TERRORISTS, THE WORLD IS ENDING TOMORROW, VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, oh look a cat pic, BE VERY, VERY SCARED BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS F*$#%^#!!!! AHHHHH!
I’d browse Facebook looking for entertainment, but got anxiety instead. Being constantly bombarded with disaster stories started to change my perception of what was going on around me.
My breaking point came while driving up Coldwater Canyon one morning. I was legitimately afraid that nuclear disaster was going to strike as soon as I reached the stoplight. An hour earlier, I had spent 30 minutes, scrolling through disaster stories on my FB feed. What happened to the uplifting “Humans of New York” posts? Humor columns? PET VIDEOS? They had vanished.
It was time. I deleted Facebook from my phone.
Look, it’s important to be informed about what’s going on locally, nationally and globally. But Facebook isn’t the place to get your news fix. There are many, many other options. Facebook will only give you more of what it thinks you want to see, based on what you interacted with last.
Still, I missed being able to scroll through one app and see a bunch of articles, complete with photos and a few preview sentences, from different news outlets. I started going to the N.Y. Times, L.A. Times, Slate’s, etc. websites separately. Devoting a set time each day to get caught up on news was good for my psyche… but it didn’t feel the same.
“Have you ever used your News app?” Steve said to me one night.
I hadn’t. The little red icon still sat dutifully on my iPhone, waiting to be used, as it had been doing since I unboxed it. I tapped it.
Haaaallelujah! The ability to see headlines and photos from all different media outlets that I FAVORITE?! And I can favorite a REGION to get local news? WHY had I never used this before?! (I’ll admit- I am so not up on apps. And I barely update the ones I do have).
Woo hoooo.
I still go to some mobile news sites regularly… but the News App has filled in a lot of what was missing in my morning scrolling. Also, it doesn’t only show one type of story based on the last story I clicked.
And those tiny moments throughout the day when I’m jonesing for a little phone distraction to pass the time? Well, they’re no longer spent hoping for entertainment but getting doses of doom. I’ve been trying to be less phone-obsessed (and deleting FB has really helped with that), but when I do have the urge to look down during a long waiting-room session, I’ve been going directly to blogs. Or, obviously, Instagram and Snapchat.
And yes, I still log on to Facebook on my laptop (I don’t think I’ll ever be able to quit it completely), but because I don’t sit in front of a computer all day, my access has been slashed. It’s much more tolerable in designated bursts. And without all the SURPRISE DOOM posts, I’ve been a lot calmer.
So, what’s your Facebook feed like? Has something like this happened to you? Let’s talk. Leave me a comment and let me know if this was totally out of left field and I am cray, or if this is a thing that’s happening to other people, too.